Gay couple, Communist mayor defy French law with same-sex marriage

A French gay couple were married on Saturday in the south-western town of Cabestany in a gesture they and the town’s Communist mayor hope will help change French law, which does not recognise homosexual marriage.

“There are times when you have to be an outlaw,” declared Cabestany's mayor Jean Vila before Saturday morning’s ceremony, appealing to other mayors to follow his example.

Saturday’s happy couple, 37-year-old artist Guillaume and 48-year-old photo-lab manager Patrick, say they were married both as a demonstration of love and as an activist gesture so that “very soon in France two people of the same sex can get married legally”.

“We are citizens, the same as everybody else,” they commented.

Their marriage lines contain the phrase “unfortunately this document has no official character, since the law today forbids marriage between people of the same sex, but it signifies the wish of the local authority to see the law change”.

The only gay marriage so far celebrated in France, in the western town of Bègles in 2004, was annulled by the courts.

Although France introduced civil partnerships, known as Pacs, in 1999, the Constitutional Council this year ruled that the law defines marriage as being “the union of a man and a woman”.